


Love Is Your Hand In Mine

by Charlie9646



Category: Harry Potter - Fandom
Genre: AU, Adult Hermione, Child, Depression, F/M, Former Teacher/Student, Happy Ending, Marriage, Mental Health Issues, Mourning, PTSD, Pregnancy, Ron died in final battle, Severus lives, happiness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-16
Updated: 2019-09-16
Packaged: 2020-10-20 02:08:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 999
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20667551
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Charlie9646/pseuds/Charlie9646
Summary: Hermione did not hear I love you from Severus very often. He was a man of few words, and even less emotion. She felt his love for her when he realized she was unwell and left the potion on her bedside table before he went to work. It was when he spent Christmas with her parents. It was when he made no remark about Harry sleeping on their couch after a fight with Ginny.





	Love Is Your Hand In Mine

Severus Snape and Hermione Granger to the outside world was the was the unlikeliest of couples. Their ages for one, she felt the need to fill every second with her rambling thoughts, he could sit for hours in silence not even making a sound as he flips the pages of his book.

But in other ways, they were like different sides of the same coin. His lack of emotion at times did not bug her. Her need to understand the world around her, pleased him greatly. The fact that they could talk about anything and everything. The fact she understood what it was like to have scars on her skin that reminded of the war that seemed so close, though far away.

Hermione was not the type judge him for things that could not be undone. She was far too logical for such things. She understood what it felt like to be an outcast. She understood what it felt like to neither totally muggle or totally wizard, just as he did. Hermione Granger saw beneath the bitterness he used as a shield from the world. She saw the man who he wanted to be, even if he would not admit it. 

He apologized to her regularly for such things when they first got together. She would take his hand in hers clutching at those potion stained fingers, and tell him “the past is the past, and we have tomorrow to make better”.

They held each other through their nightmares. Spent evenings in their living room reading in the firelight. They went on walks in the park near their home. They ran a small potion shop bellow their flat. Hermione mostly dealt with the customers. Even she knew her husband was not a people person. 

Severus also would never teach another student again. Much to his pleasure and those who heard about the angry Professor Snape, who helped save the wizarding world.

Her head rested on his mostly hairless bare chest in their bed. His arm around her. Neither could sleep. And that was the norm for them. They generally passed out around three am and we're up between seven am and nine am depending on the day. 

”You know I love you right?” Hermione said to him. 

”I know, you do Hermione,” he said quietly. ”And I you”.

”I know you do not say it easily Severus,” she said, and he sighed. 

He spoke his tone rough ”my childhood did not leave me easily able to voice what I feel, and the one time I did before you, she did not share them. I am trying to get better at it”.

She sat up and faced him ”Severus the thing is you do say it. I feel nothing but elation with your hand in mine.” She grabbed his hand in her own. The hands of a pianist, or a potion’s master. The fingers stained from years of work. ”I feel nothing but love when you hold me when you left me a potion on my bedside table, but most of all when you listen to my rambling thoughts. That Severus is what true love is, not words.” 

He kissed her at that moment like his very life depended on it. Because in some ways the only reason they had seen the other side of the war, the one no speaks of, the aftereffects was the other. 

*******

Neither felt elation when they discovered weeks later when they found out she was pregnant. How could they? Neither was totally right in the head. Him after carrying the pain of being part of the reason Lily was dead, and her having watched Ronald Weasley be killed in front of her very eyes. 

His black eyes shut as if he was trying to deal with the weight of the fact he was going to be a father. Something he did not want to be. His own father was not a good example.

She sat there on the tile of their bathroom, trying to stop her rambling thoughts. The ones that could easily overtake her mind.

Neither dared to suggest their other option. Neither could bear the very thought after seeing so much death in their lives.

He got down on his knees in front of her his black eyes searching her brown ones. His hand taking hold of hers. Then he pulled her into his lap, as he sat down properly. ”Hermione I promise you I will do everything within my power to give you and our child the life you deserve. I love you more than anything. You are my safe harbor.”

Tears started to shed from her eyes. And he wiped them away carefully. 

She tangled her hands in his hair, and kissed him. Their foreheads rested against each other afterward and Hermione whispered to him ”and you Severus are my rock. You deserve happiness just as much as this child and I do. I love you more than life itself. More than the stars in the sky.”

He said as he held her close ”I think we should name her Rose Eileen Snape. Rose for Ronald and Lily, Eileen for my mother, if you don't mind that.”

She smiled at him and said,” Severus I think it's perfect, but it also could be a boy.” 

Severus said ”I know for sure she's going to be a girl. Sometimes fathers just know these things.”

They may not be elated the day they found out about Rose Eileen, but when they felt her move for the first time in Hermione’s stomach they felt nothing but joy, when they held her for the first time they felt nothing but happiness. When she took her first steps they felt nothing but love. When she went to Hogwarts they felt some sadness, but also pride. And when Severus walked her down the aisle on her wedding day he felt nothing but elation. 

Rose said to him “I know he loves me like you love mum.”


End file.
